Transitions to animal domestication in Southeast Asia: Zooarchaeological analysis of Cồn Cổ Ngựa and Mán Bạc, Vietnam
Date
2017
Authors
Jones, Rebecca Kate
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Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University
Abstract
The domestication of plants and animals was a pivotal process
that significantly affected and shaped the trajectory of human
history. However, this transition is still poorly understood in
many parts of the world. For Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), most
researchers believe this transition was initialised by a
migration of agricultural groups that spread from the Yangtze
into MSEA following rivers and the coastline (Bellwood and
Oxenham 2008; Matsumura et al. 2008; 2011). This hypothesis
posits that these migrant populations brought domesticated crops
and animals into the region and lived alongside indigenous
hunter-gatherer groups.
This thesis analyses the transition from hunting and gathering to
domestication by comparing the taphonomic and taxonomic
characteristics of the faunal assemblages of Cồn Cổ Ngựa
(CCN) and Mán Bạc (MB) in northern Vietnam. Both sites were
selected as they sit on either side of the presumed
hunter-gatherer (CCN) and agricultural (MB) subsistence
transition in Vietnam and have the potential to show crucial
societal changes. Since CCN and MB are burial sites, human-animal
interactions at the sites have the potential to portray the
belief systems and ontology of the people. The ultimate aim was
to contextualise CCN and MB within the framework of subsistence
change in Southeast Asia (SEA) and determine how and whether
human behaviour and human-animal relationships developed during
this purported transitional phase in the Mid Holocene.
A clear and perceivable shift in the faunal composition between
CCN and MB was found, and this transition can be confidently
attributed to the introduction of domesticated animals around
4,000 cal. BP to northern Vietnam. Further, results from the
principal component analysis of sites throughout SEA showed that
the relative proportions of certain taxa can be useful in
separating hunter-gatherer and agricultural based sites across
the region, as well as revealing outliers based on localised
environments and/or choice. It was emphasised that this
transition from ‘hunting to farming’ was by no means
clear-cut. MB still had a strong emphasis on hunting wild taxa
and fishing, and these permeable cultural-economic boundaries are
also perceivable in other SEA sites. However, this thesis
suggests that domestic and wild animals probably imbued different
meanings and significance. Further, both CCN and MB were not
‘simply middens’ reflecting what people ate, rather they pose
intriguing insights into human-animal interactions. At both sites
there is a perceivable change in the engagement with animals and
the landscape that, this thesis argues, involved a
reconceptualising of this relationship.
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Keywords
Zooarchaeology, Archaeozoology, faunal analysis, domestication, hunter-gatherer, Southeast Asia, Vietnam
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